Step 2: Pee in It

Step 3: Get a Bag

use an old grocery bag to form a bowl/cup shape
in the center of your hole. shape with dirt as necessary.

note:
here in los angeles an emergency would leave me unable
to drive anywhere but grocery bags would be falling from the
sky literally.
[pause-walks outside]
i walked outside just this second and found one right away on the sidewalk.

Step 4: Cover It

remember the bag in step 3?
open it and flatten it out to cover
your new pee hole.

THEN - use dirt to hold the perimeter edges of the bag / cover
THEN-- put some dirt or a small rock in the middle of the cover to weigh it down

like a shallow cone

Step 5: Drink

condensation will build up overnight or throughout the day.
the water droplets build up on your cone-shaped cover
until they get heavy enough to drip into the cup below

this will allow you to survive another day in the wild or the ghetto or the desert...

if you have ample amount of dirty or salt water i suggest the "LifeStraw"

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70 Discussions

Solar still do NOT make urine completely safe to drink. Solar stills only remove impurities such as salts, heavy metals and other dissolved solids, and does eliminates microbiological organisms. However any chemicals (with boiling points anywhere near water) in the source sample, will still evaporate and condense with the water. In a solar still you can't control the evaporation point, so all of those chemicals and toxins your body flushes will still transfer. It will be safer to drink than pure urine or other source water to be treated, but a solar still can NOT produce pure water. Only separate those heavier contaminants with much higher boiling points and any organic materal and other dissolved and undissolved solids

Distillation in the laboratory or controled setting can achieve extraction of pure water by using exact temperatures. Different chemicals have different boiling points and if you can focus on water's boiling point, it will evaporate leaving behind any chemicals that have a higher boiling point.

I would suggest drinking urine as soon as you get it, as urine is a breeding ground for bacteria, and you sure as hell do not want large amounts of bacteria anywhere near your drinking water. Drinking urine when you get it eliminates the time during which the bacteria can spread, and is safe to drink within a few minutes. But if you get desperate enough to drink urine, you'll be chugging any form of water you can get

I first read about this "solar still" distillation method maybe 40 years ago in a leaflet distributed by the state of Arizona on surviving in the desert in emergencies. They suggested a much larger hole 4-5 feet in diameter in a donut shape with a raised center to set the collection jar on. Put anything that contains water...plants, pee, dead animals...in the trench surrounding the jar. Stretch the clear plastic over the pit and use dirt to seal the edges and hold in place. Place a pebble centered over the jar to create a low place in the plastic so that the condensate will drain into the jar. Let it cook during the day while you sleep/rest in the shade, harvest your water before dark and travel in evening, night time if possible, and early morning while cool. Keep the condensate side of the plastic as clean as possible and repeat daily until you reach water or die. The amount of water you get will be determined by the water content of the stuff you put in the pit and the amount of heat generated by the sun. You are not going to get much so have a plan and use it wisely.

Don't expect plastic bags to fall from the sky.

Do not eat or defecate if you don't have a lot of water. Either will diminish the amount of water available to your body. While drinking pee straight up can be used to supplement your water intake, drinking pee without sufficient fresh water to rinse your kidneys will cause you to get delirious, wonder in circles, do stupid stuff, and die. This is also good info if you are stranded on a boat in the ocean except you will have to construct your still differently.

I'm not sure that you could survive long-term on the amount of water you could distil that way, although it certainly would work. I'm thinking about getting one of these to stash in my "preparedness cupboard" ;-) http://www.lifesaversystems.com

I think It was Gandi who confessed to the world he owed his health to drinking a glass of his own urine every morning. Is he still alive?

A few years back a rescue by the Australian Navy of a British Sailor who had ripped the keel off his racing yacht. Sonar bulbs dropped from the ships Helicopter picked up the sound of Tony Bullimore in his upturned yacht pumping drinking water. He used a Osmosis pump (available in many survival shops) to desalinate sea water for drinking.

I bought one after that and carried it everywhere with me. One day I had to use it. 100 pumps per tumbler full of water. Took forever to get a decent drink but it tasted OK. What was my water source? Urine of course! I mixed urine from 5 people and filtered it with the osmosis pump.

Been there, done that, taught it, never got cholera. Distillation process removes vibrio bacteria as well as others. Your numbers are way off on composition of Urine. Check medical text next time, not Wikipedia! Salt and other impurities ARE remove by a solar still.

False information.Urine is a pure substance.It is used in a lot of medicines some people drink urine for their own health.If you care to do some research on Google .You will discover some truth about URINE what it does in the body when you drink it.I had a cancerous sore on my leg.An old codger said to me all you do it put your own urine in the hole and it will deal. Surprisingly it did